Vetteran

I thought about this for sometime. Read many posts here and on other forums relating to CAMs. I wasn’t sure I would like all the effects a CAM would do to the car with exception to performance gains of course. I decided to do the CAM swap. Drove to LGMotorsports Wednesday for the G5X3/114 CAM swap. Sean did the install, everything went fine. Lou tuned the car with LS1Edit, then put it on the dyno. The car was running lean, Lou bumped it up 2%. Dyno’d again, that was a little to much, backed it off a little and dyno’d again. That brought the car down to running in the mid 13’s fuel mixture!


I picked up 68HP and almost 14RWT (this is with the stock heads)! Putting it mildly, I am VERY pleased with the results (see dyno graphs below)!! With no track nearby and going by SOTP meter, the car accelerates faster and keeps pulling all the way to rev limiter! My backside has never been so close to the front side of the seat! To sum it up in a timeless expletive from my generation…Man!!!

The car has a lope now but it sounds good. Having a loppey car is a new experience, but its growing on me. Lou set the idle at 1000 RPMs. When slowing/stopping the car, the engine easies down to idle and it has not died on me once. When starting the car cold it tries to die at first, but I just give it 2 or 3 easy revs and it settles in at 950 to 1000 RPMs and is fine after that.

The trip back was all highway miles which gave me a good feel for it at cruise speeds. At 1500 to 1900 RPMs the car feels a tad rough but by no means unpleasant. I would assume this to be characteristic of CAMs in general, they don’t want to run that slow! At 2000 RPMs and up the car runs great and is more responsive at the throttle.

Yesterday I took the car out for a fun/test drive since the drive home. Its a different car! I can tell the computer is still adjusting to the new cam. By the end of the drive, it was running better than when I started. I took a friend on this ride and let him drive the car. He was impressed to say the least. As a passenger, I got a different perspective of (and respect for) the cars performance capabilities. I would recommend to any of you who have not rode in your vette as a passenger to do so!

The car is louder now especially at WOT. It sounds great to me, but it may draw the kind of attention I don’t want. I should mention, between 1500 and 2000 RPMs there is now exhaust resonance at cruise I didn’t have before the CAM swap. This I’m not crazy about. A tamer exhaust may be in my future…we’ll see.

The first chart below is the dyno after having the LGM LT headers installed and no tune (at the time Lou wasn’t able to upload modifications to the PCM). For the record, the only performance mod done to the car between the two charts was the CAM install.

At this point, I think I’ve made the right decision and going to really like the mod!!
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3C2

Congratulations! That is a lot of torque that you were putting down with just the headers alone, very stout car. I'll bet that thing freakin screams now. I can't wait to get my cam. I want 400+ rear wheel hp

Vetteran

Just returned from another drive. When I started the car today I did'nt have to rev it to settle it to idle...hope this continues!

I'm adjusting to the lope and the computer is adjusting to the cam. The car just ran better today. This mod has made the car even more fun and its completely driveable in traffic situations.

Of course the added volume is getting the car even more looks!

"I'm lovin it" and I'm not refering to a Big Mac!

TIKTGTR

Thanks for all the great info I have been doing a little research myself on which cam to go with. I want a very "lopey" streetable cam and it sounds like you have what I'm looking for. I have the SLP Loudmouths so I can only imagine how loud its gonna be ! Thanks again for the info

MikeJamesC5

I've been doing research on cams as well. I've been checking out the G5x3, Carteks x3 and the T-rex. From the posts everyone that has the G5x3 seem satsified with it. The Cartek x3 I thought was suppose to be faster than the x2 but one forum member who used to have the x2 switched to the x3 and is running slower times. Another forum member had the T-rex installed and was having a hard time getting it to run right. So the G5x3 sounds like the best one of them all. Now would that cam and the AFR 225 heads be a good combo? Because those heads sound sweet!

Geneus

G5X3

Vetteran

Mike, don't know how that combo would work. You might give LGM a call. I think I'm keeping the Borla's, the G5X3 with stock heads is really growing on me, and the car sounds absolutely great!!!

Good luck with your CAM choice!

03SpiralGray

Eric is your car a manual or an automatic?

Vetteran

M6 (Its in the sig )

03SpiralGray

Oops, I looked there but did not see it. I have since looked again and saw it there. My bad.

The reason I asked is because I have an A4 with a Blackwing and LG long tubes and mine made 340rwhp and 359rwtq. I want to do a G5x3 also, so that is why I was interested.


Once I finally pull the trigger I hope I get the numbers that you did. Man those are awesome numbers.

Vetteran

No problem Kelly and thank you, I'm really liking this CAM.
My last vette was an A4 but I didn't get this deep into mods. Its funny you should mention this because while I was at LGM for the install I overheard a phone call of a person inquiring about a CAM install (obviously I could only hear one side of the conversion). The sales rep (Sorry, can't remember his name) ask what type of tranny, which was an A4. He went and ask Sean who was installing my CAM about a CAM swap in an A4, and said he should look at doing a TC before doing a CAM swap. Food for thought.

Thats all I can tell you. Do more searches on the forum and check out ls1tech.com. I'm sure that would give you more insight, I know it did for me.

Z06-JIM

I love the added power and the nice LOPE this cam makes!
Get comments all the time on how good the car sounds at idle.
Great cam with awesome performance.

HalfMoon

Very nice. My car with a Halltech Stinger, LG Headers and stock C5 catback made almost the same numbers as your before numbers, 340hp / 357tq.

This makes me really want this cam.

Question for you, and I would appreciate honesty ()... How do you think it would drive if you were in traffic for say 20 miles each way to work, stop and go, 0 to 20 to 5 or 10ish mph on a mountain road? would it make the car more of a bear to drive?

I had a smaller cam in my old Camaro, and it didn't drive under 10 mph very well at all.

Thanks alot for any input!

blazeone

How are you guys setting up the schedule for replacing your valve springs?

Vetteran

I have not yet driven in the conditions you mentioned. But in normal city traffic I have adapted to the change in the cars character introduced by the cam, and have not problem at all. My vette is not a DD. However if I drove in daily driving conditions as you do, I don't believe I would do a cam swap.

Vetteran

As of now, check the springs at 15,000 and replace at 20,000 miles.

HalfMoon

My car is only a DD in the summer when my wife is off work (Teacher), so it's limited use really. but I appreciate your thoughts on that, I know even with my smaller cam in the SS (224/224 on a 114LSA) it didn't seem as traffic friendly, but I was running a Mike Morgan Mail order tune, so that could be a big part of it.

Just found out that a friend has a friend with the G5x3 locally, and we are setting up a "meet and evaluate" session.

Thanks again.

03SpiralGray

I'm confused. I thought that they put in new double valve springs, so why would you need to change them at 20k.


Is the lift that radical that it makes the springs wear out at 20k?

Vetteran

Yes they did put in the double springs. Those are the numbers I was given at LGM. As I understand it, the dual springs are to provide redundancy in the event one spring breaks, not to extend the life of the springs. I'm hoping that number goes up. I believe there are folks out there now with 20,000+ on their springs and I intend to monitor this closely myself...

03SpiralGray

OK, thanks Eric. I wanted to make an appointment to have a cam installed, but Lou is off racing and won't be back until the 28th.



So I have to wait, since he is the tuner and has the laptop.